Disclaimer: I do not own Ace Lightning. So, no, I cannot get you exclusive merchandise… Stop following me! oO

A/n: Meh. Crap title. Hopefully the story's better. I wanted to see what would happen if Ace found out about Mark trying to delete him, on top of finding out he's not real. Damn, I'm a horrible person. This is what came out.

Mark sat staring at his computer screen. The assignment he was working on wasn't due for awhile but he wanted to get a start on it. Kilobyte was still in the sixth dimension and Sparx and Ace had yet to locate Lord Fear. But then, things were unlikely to stay that way for long.

He was interrupted by a tap at his window.

"Hey, kid, you busy?" Ace asked, sticking his head in.

At least he didn't break it Mark thought. But then he hadn't been breaking that many things lately. "No, not really." He could probably finish his assignment later. Unless Ace had come to tell him that Kilobyte was back or something. "What's up? You guys found Lord Fear yet?"

"Still looking," Ace replied stepping through the window. "Wherever he is, he's found a pretty good hiding spot. We'll probably have to wait until he comes out by himself."

"Nothing to do until then, I guess?"

"Yeah, Sparx is going to get pretty bored…" Ace trailed off, his eyes wondering across the room.

"Are you okay?" Mark asked.

Ace seemed to ignore him.

"Ace?"

Ace blinked. "Sorry. I… To tell the truth I didn't come here to tell you whether we found Fear or not." He paused, seeming to lose track of what he was trying to say. "Kid, I know now I'm just a game, but I don't know, well… everything."

"Ace, you're not just a game…"

"Maybe. But I need to know where I'm coming from. Then I might be able to figure out if I am or not."

Mark sighed. "Come on, I'll show you it then." He saved his assignment and put in his game disk as Ace came and knelt down beside the computer. "Ok, here goes…"

It took half an hour. That was it. Half an hour for a kid to explain to him his entire existence. Ace couldn't quite take his eyes off the screen. "So, that's it?"

"Yeah, pretty much," Mark replied, watching Ace just looking at the computer.

Ace sighed, dropping his gaze. "Just seems too simple. But I suppose that's 'cause it's just… a game."

"Well, it's certainly not simple anymore," Mark pointed out. "Doesn't that tell you something?"

"I guess… at least I hope so. You think I'm real now?" he replied looking up at Mark.

Mark stared back at him for a moment. Ace's eyes looked as innocent as a five year olds, but Mark knew there was so much more beneath that. "Ace, I wouldn't be helping you with this if I thought you weren't."

Ace looked back down. "You know," he finally said, "it is so simple. Even now. If we wanted to get rid of everything we could just delete your game file."

Mark just looked at him, before turning his head away, unable to look at him straight. Please don't bring that up.

"Hey, don't worry, it's not like I'm actually considering it," said Ace quickly.

"I know," Mark replied, still unable to look back at Ace.

"What's wrong?"

"Well, it's not like it's never occurred to me before."

"It's pretty obvious, kid. Don't worry about it. It's not like you were actually going to do it."

Mark was silent.

"Mark?"

"Look, I was going to. Once. When Lord Fear had all the pieces of the Amulet…"

"What? Why?"

"Lord Fear had all the pieces of the Amulet! He was going to win, Ace! I wouldn't have even considered it if I thought there was any other way."

Ace stood up and walked across the room, barely hearing what Mark was saying. All he could feel was… fear, pain, why would Mark delete him? That thought was suddenly replaced by anger, the emotion building before he whirled back around. "So you thought that gave you the right to wipe us all out?"

"Ace! If you had lost Lord Fear would've taken over the earth. I wasn't going to let that happen."

"And what about my world? Did it occur to you that you'd be wiping out the entire sixth dimension? That's like… genocide or something!"

Mark looked away.

"It didn't, did it?"

"Yes, it did, alright! I knew what I was doing. Maybe I shouldn't have considered it. But I did. I thought it through. And I chose to save my world. I thought yours was still a game, and…"

"Yeah, well maybe you were right then. It's just a game after all. It doesn't matter. None of us matters. It certainly doesn't matter if you sacrifice us for a world that actually has a right to exist!" Ace turned his back to Mark, glaring out the window.

"Ace, it's not like that. You do have a right to exist."

"And what, you have the right to give me that right, or to take it away, just because I came out of your game, is that it?" Ace growled back, still staring outside. He didn't hear Mark answer. So now he's not even going to give me the courtesy of a reply? Ace turned back around, not sure what he was going to say but fully intending to shout the next thing that came to mind.

Mark wasn't even looking at him, instead staring at the floor.

"Well?" Ace shouted, unable to come up with anything else.

Mark finally spoke, slowly and quietly. "Ace, I don't think of you as anything less than any human I know…"

"Then why did you try and wipe me off the face of the earth?"

"I'm sorry…" Mark was still staring at the floor.

"So what you don't even have a reason?"

"I can't do this alright!" Mark finally burst out. "I can't deal with having to watch my back every minute because I'm afraid I'm going to get killed! Or having to lie to my parents almost every day 'cause I can't even tell them what's going on! I'm just a kid. I'm not supposed to have to choose whether to get rid of my friend to save the world or not." He stopped, out of breath.

Ace wanted to blow up, he wanted to tell Mark exactly how much of a jerk he was, how he was the worst possible excuse for a friend, how he was… but he couldn't. If Mark had said anything else, any other excuse. But that hadn't been an excuse. Silence covered the room; all Ace could hear was Mark breathing, still trying to catch his breath from his outburst.

"Maybe I just wanted everything to go back to normal," Mark finally added.

Another silence.

"Normal doesn't include me," said Ace quietly.

Mark still heard him. He tried to regain his composure enough to look back up and reply. "Ace…" and trailed off as he saw no one was there. Only the open window. He walked to it and looked outside. Only thing in the sky was a multitude of stars. "Ace?" he called anyway. There was no reply. Mark sighed and went to slam the window shut but it stuck. He tried to jerk it across but it wouldn't budge, and he finally gave up in frustration. He was alone. "Ace, I'm sorry," he said to the darkness outside. Even though he knew Ace wouldn't hear. "I wouldn't change anything that's happened even if I could." Then he did slam the window shut, causing the wall to shake.

On the ground Ace looked back up at the side of the house. Mark could have seen him nearly pressed against the wall, but he hadn't bothered to look down. How could Mark say he didn't want to change anything, yet had tried to delete him? Maybe, Mark really had felt backed into a corner. Ace wondered if he should go back inside, but he didn't really trust himself to think clearly enough at the moment not to hurt the kid any further. He shook his head, attempting to clear the heap of thoughts stuck up there. He'd have to try sort this out later, when he wasn't likely to say something to Mark he'd regret. Right now he needed to think. Ace took to the sky, hoping to find some place quiet.